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who died of COVID-19 has been “ known as a statistic ” since the pandemic started . “ It bothered me from the beginning that they were just a number ,” she says . “ I needed to make sure that he ’ s never just a number — that he ’ s a person .”
Sime , a former banking executive , says the book should appeal to any reader , since everyone has been affected by the pandemic . “ This book is part of history because the pandemic is part of history ,” she says .
The idea for the book was envisioned by Brenda E . Cortez , an author from Franklin , Wisconsin , asmall city about 17 miles south of Milwaukee . She owns a publishing company , BC Books , and she created a series of children ’ s books that feature a character known as Howl the Owl .
Cortez and Sime are friends who met through a social media network of organ donors and transplant recipients . Sime had a kidney transplant in June 2019 , and Cortez is a kidney donor . After they connected , Sime contributed to another book by Cortez , titled Be�ause �� Organ ��na�i�n . Its approach islike ��i�es��� — multiple writers , in this case 25 donors and transplant recipients , shared stories about how their lives changed following the procedures .
Sime started to collaborate with Cortez on ��i�es��� ayear after her sister ’ s death to help her mourn the
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